Privacy Policy

We take your privacy very seriously. Should you become a client of the firm, you will receive a copy of our privacy policy with our letter of engagement and Terms of Business.

Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

When we use your personal data we are regulated under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which applies across the European Union (including in the United Kingdom) and we are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal data for the purposes of the GDPR. Our use of your personal data is subject to your instructions, the GDPR, other relevant UK and EU legislation and our professional duty of confidentiality.

Personal data we collect about you

The table below sets out the personal data we will or may collect in the course of advising and/or acting for you.

Personal data we will collect

Personal data we may collect depending on why you have instructed us

Your name, address and telephone number

Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, eg your date of birth or passport details

Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason for doing so, eg:

to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;

for the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;

for our legitimate interests or those of a third party; or

where you have given consent.

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.

The table below explains what we use (process) your personal data for and our reasons for doing so:

What we use your personal data for

Our reasons

To provide legal services to you

For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract

Conducting checks to identify our clients and verify their identity

Screening for financial and other sanctions or embargoes

Other processing necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, eg under health and safety regulation or rules issued by our professional regulator

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

Ensuring business policies are adhered to, eg policies covering security and internet use

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service to you

Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can delivery the best service for you at the best price

Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to protect our intellectual property and other commercially valuable information

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

Statistical analysis to help us manage our practice

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can delivery the best service for you at the best price

Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for us and for you

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

Updating and enhancing client records

For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, eg making sure that we can keep in touch with our clients about existing and new services

Statutory returns

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, eg to make sure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you

Marketing our services to:

—existing and former clients;

—third parties who have previously expressed an interest in our services;

—third parties with whom we have had no previous dealings.

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to promote our business to existing and former clients

External audits and quality checks, eg for ISO or Investors in People accreditation and the audit of our accounts

For our legitimate interests or for those of a third party, ie to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

The above table does not apply to special category personal data, which we will only process with your explicit consent. Personal data is defined as data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership; genetic and biometric data and data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation.

Promotional communications

We will not use your personal data for promotional purposes.

Who we share your personal data with

We routinely share personal data with:

professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to, eg barristers, medical professionals, accountants, tax advisors or other experts;

other third parties where necessary to carry out your instructions, eg your mortgage provider or HM Land Registry in the case of a property transaction or Companies House;

credit reference agencies;

our insurers and brokers;

external auditors, eg in relation to ISO accreditation and the audit of our accounts;

our bank;

external service suppliers, representatives and agents that we use to make our business more efficient, eg typing services, marketing agencies, document collation or analysis suppliers.

We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers relating to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you.

We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We may also need to share some personal data with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a re-structuring. Usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible. The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.

We will not share your personal data with any other third party.

Where your personal data is held

Information may be held at our offices and those of our third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above (see ‘Who we share your personal data with’).

Some of these third parties may be based outside the European Economic Area. For more information, including on how we safeguard your personal data when this occurs, see below: ‘Transferring your personal data out of the EEA’.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will keep your personal data after we have finished advising or acting for you. We will do so for one of these reasons:

to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf;

to show that we treated you fairly;

to keep records required by law.

We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.

When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.

Transferring your personal data out of the EEA

To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA), eg:

with your and our service providers located outside the EEA;

if you are based outside the EEA;

where there is an international dimension to the matter in which we are advising you.

These transfers are subject to special rules under European and UK data protection law.

Non-EEA countries do not have the same data protection laws as the United Kingdom and EEA. We will, however, ensure the transfer complies with data protection law and all personal data will be secure.

If you would like further information please contact Nancy Khawam, our Data Protection Officer.

Your rights

You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:

Access

The right to be provided with a copy of your personal data

Rectification

The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data

To be forgotten

The right to require us to delete your personal data—in certain situations

Restriction of processing

The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data—in certain circumstances, eg if you contest the accuracy of the data

Data portability

The right to receive the personal data you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party—in certain situations

To object

The right to object:

—at any time to your personal data being processed for direct marketing (including profiling);

—in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal data, eg processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests.

Not to be subject to automated individual decision-making

The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you

let us have enough information to identify you with your full name and address;

let us have proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill); and

let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.

Keeping your personal data secure

We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

How to complain

We hope that Nancy Khawam, our Data Protection Officer, can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your information.

The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns or telephone: 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this privacy policy

We may change this privacy policy dated 1 December 2019 from time to time, when we do we we will update the policy on our website.

How to contact us

Please contact Nancy Khawam, our Data Protection Officer, by post, email or telephone if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or the information we hold about you. Nancy’s contact details are:

45 Pont Street,
London, SW1X 0BD -
UK

In light of the UK government’s advice of 23 March 2020, the office building is now closed. We are working remotely until further notice. Our office hours are unchanged (9.30am to 5.30pm).

We shall continue to provide you with our legal advice and support throughout these unprecedented and challenging times by email, telephone calls and/or video conferencing, whichever best suits your needs. Please email us in the first instance to arrange a call or video conferencing.